Is this a sensible plan (nigh weaning)

[susiebee46]

DS is nearly 9 months old. He's never been a great sleeper but over the last couple of months he's got loads better and settled into a pattern of having a 7oz bottle of formula at 19:00 before bed and then waking for another 7oz at 23:00ish and then again at 3:00ish, he gets up for the day at about 6:30 but doesn't want milk then.

I think it's habit rather than need as he's not hungry when he wakes in the morning and is quite happy to wait until 9ish before having any more milk.

I'd like to reduce the night feeds, I'm pretty adverse to crying so thought that I'd reduce the amount he has at 3am slowly over the course of a couple of weeks and see how we go. before working on the 23:00 feed. Is this sensible or am I making it more complicated than it needs to be? Should I just go cold turkey?

[NickyEds]

Marking my place. My DS is 11 months and follows a very similar pattern to yours, Bottles at 7, 11-12, 3.30/4 then doesn't need morning milk, just breakfast at 8. He also doesn't take as much as your DS, maybe only 4oz so I'm thinking it's just habit too.

[NickyEds]

Just us then op!! Last night DS had 3oz at 11 then 3oz at 3am-no where near enough to be genuine hunger I don't think. I'm tempted to try and get him off it this week and next so it's done by Christmas....but we're away a bit over Christmas so the disruption might undo any good work I do now. I am such a chicken.

[susiebee46]

Looks like it Nicky! It's not going too well here, the first night I tried to give him 3oz at 3:00 but he then stood up in his cot for an hour so I ended up giving him another bottle of 7oz so he ended up having more than usual
Think I might start with the earlier feed as will hopefully have a bit more willpower then.
I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do though as he hardly eats any solid food and doesn't drink that much milk in the day so I think he does need the milk but he's in a bit of a viscous cycle as he's not hungry in the day as he's having so much at night.
It definitely sounds like your d's is waking out of habit if he's only having 3oz. Have you tried giving him water instead (I imagine my ds would be horrified but seems to work for some).
I'm seeing the hv on Friday so will see if she has any pearls
I'm a total chicken too plus quite lazy and always get scared I case he reverts back to his previous horrible sleeping habits

[NickyEds]

TBH 7oz is quite a lot so I'd say he's hungry and just feed him (disclaimer: I'm chicken!)- maybe reducing them to 5oz each. I'd not bother with milk at 9am, just breakfast at 8ish? You might find it just sorts itself out as he increases solids. My ds has always eaten really, really well so I'm especially convinced he doesn't need the night milk.
We too had absolutely terrible sleep up to about 2/3 weeks ago (up every 90minutes-2hours all night) so I'm grateful for just one or two night wakings.
Tried water on the advice of hv. Complete joke-just wound him up more!
I know they all say that they don't really need feeding in the night at this age but DS grew 5cm in 7/8 weeks so up until now I just didn't feel confident enough to stop.

[McFox]

I've been trying to wean my DS off a 3am feed because he was waking up at 6/7 and wasn't hungry. What I've done is gradually cut the amount of formula down to 100ml with just a couple of scoops of powder which seems to be working, it's making it much less attractive to wake up for!

[monkeyblonde]

We are sort of trying to do this, it seems a bit hit or miss though and he's always ready for early breakfast (10 months old), despite having 3 big meals, 3 bottles during the day and 2 at night. McFox, are you watering the formula down? How old is your DS?

[McFox]

I am watering it down. My DS is 6 months. He normally takes 210ml and 7 scoops and I've gradually dropped the scoops down to 2 in 100ml which he doesn't even finish now. I've done that over a couple of weeks.

[JassyRadlett]

Watering down worked for us with DS - straight cutting volume was less successful.